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Thursday, August 17, 2017

This year in particular, my day-to-day has changed quite a bit. There have been plenty of medical challenges the last few years and I suspect more to come. Getting some of those thoughts down on this art journal page, I used paint, stenciling, and typewritten phrases. I realized...

(At this point 6 hours ago, the phone rang. After many minor emergencies and scheduled activities, I'm resuming my post about life today...)

I realized that I have plenty I can art journal about such the expression I most hate - "Take it one day at a time" but I'll leave that for another day. In the meantime, this page captures some of the challenges and the process is on this video:

Thanks for hanging in there with me today. Hope you have a good weekend!

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

We have a tradition. We go for a walk/hike early on during all our vacations. The tradition isn't the walk it is how long it is in the wrong direction. Here's the journaling that goes with this page:

With a noon reservation at Fallingwater, we had some time to
sight see that morning. Cucumber Falls
was supposed to be close to the road and looked like a good place to stretch
our legs and take in one of our favorite things, a beautiful waterfall. We took one of the last parking spaces and
crossed the bridge onto a well maintained trail. Soon I began to wonder why no one was coming
back along the path after visiting the falls.
Where were all the people who were parked in the lot? A couple of people did come along but it was
20 minutes further down to another bridge and a view and we just didn’t have
the time.

When we returned to the bridge, I suggested we try a small trail
by the creek. It was steep and we held
onto branches in places and stepped over mud but still no waterfall though we
could definitely hear it. Nearly out of time, we took a selfie.

After crossing the bridge back to the parking lot, Lenny said,
“Wait, let’s look over here.” Sure
enough there was a sign! And what is
that? Steps even! The waterfall was just steps from the car.

We had already been talking about how this was part of our
tradition. On the first day of a trip we
always walk much further than planned.
We walked miles and miles to get to and from the beach the first time we
went to Hilton Head. We walked more
blocks than I could possibly count on the hilly streets of San Francisco until
we wound our way back to the hotel. In
Grand Tetons National Park, I gave up on our trek around Jenny Lake and we took
a boat back to the car. In Sydney we
wanted to walk the Harbor Bridge just after arriving and take the bus
back. Unfortunately it was a Saturday
and we didn’t have the bus schedule so we just had to walk back on only 2 or 3
hours sleep. Our long walks have given
us beautiful views, slightly achy feet and fun stories from our travels.

For the video, I tell this story so you can skip that part if you wish and get onto the layout which uses up some Maya Road chipboard and uses Distress Oxide inks:

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Something I find particularly challenging in scrapbooking is to scrap photos for events where you weren't there. DH visits his family each summer and often I'm not along. He spent quite a bit of time with his grandchildren but alas few photos and even fewer action shots. So I've got a couple of good pictures and no real story. Turns out they just mostly hung out doing everyday stuff so I kept the page casual and let the bright blue color lead.

Thanks for watching today. Videos have been a bit sparse lately and my get even more so. Family medical needs are greater than normal right now. I'm also doing some sewing and knitting, just whatever helps me unwind.

My sketchbooks and classes remain available and I check email every day if you have any questions.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

A few years ago, I noticed that a friend has organized his recipes in page protectors in a notebook all in one place. What a great idea! So I did mine and I must have had more time or motivation than I have now because I retyped them in this great format. Now I need to add more recipes and they are not getting retyped. The best I'm going to do is give them an easy to read font and size but I do to clean out my notebook. And I really needed a new notebook altogether.

This one is a standard office supply store notebook. I've decorated the front with very flat items and made custom tabs so you can see them between the page protectors. I used an entire paper collection from Stampin' Up! I was happy to use it up as I've had it for years.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

I've had this dress for 9 years. I remember because my husband and I were going to Hawaii. A few weeks before our trip, we were all in Charlotte for my Mother's birthday in March and she wanted to visit one of her favorite boutiques. When we got there, the place was packed and there were clearance signs on all the merchandise. It didn't make sense as all the clothes appeared to be for spring. We asked and found out they were going out of business despite just getting in their spring merchandise. So we dived into the racks like everyone else. Women were trying on clothes in every possible corner, behind any type of camouflage they could find as you certainly couldn't get a dressing room. I got a long aqua sweater, a couple of printed T's and this pretty dress which I wanted to take on my trip.

Despite being my favorite color, a good fit and very comfortable, I've only worn it a handful of times. It's pretty open on top with the V front and back. I've looked for a cropped sweater or shrug but never found anything that matched. A couple of months ago I went to a new-to-me knitting shop with the dress and pattern in hand. I was determined to find some yarn and make a sweater for this pretty dress.

This is the finished sweater. I wish you could feel it. The yarn called Cozette by Knit One Crochet Too is silk and cotton and light as a feather. At only $9.50 per spool it was very economical.

To think I hesitated taking up knitting again because I thought I lived in too warm a climate to wear anything I might make! This sweater proves that isn't true.

So I still need somewhere reasonably dressy to wear this. I guess I'd better drop some hints and maybe an opportunity will appear! It won't be Hawaii for sure but maybe an evening out?

I'm working on a new papercrafting project I'll have up soon. Thanks for visiting today!

Friday, July 7, 2017

A Q&A is going around for Scrapbooking YouTubers called Scrappy Tag. I was tagged by Kelly Theder Oblak to participate. There are several questions which I answered conversationally in this video. I realized when I finished that I'd focused a lot on my past window treatment business by comparison. It's been on my mind lately as I just moved some sewing things into my scrap room. I'm not planning to go back into the business but I am getting back into sewing a bit.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Lavender and other shades of purple are very difficult to find in scrapbooking supplies. So I did my own background for this page with a gelli plate and several paints. I raided my mixed media supplies for a few embellishments.

The photo array at the top of the page flips up to show the journaling underneath. See the video for more on this page:

I just hit 8,000 subscribers on YouTube. Thanks for all of your support and thanks for visiting today!

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

I finally cleaned up my craft room on Sunday and to celebrate, I did a little crafty play that wasn't too messy. This page uses the small square gelli plate which is part of one of the packs of 3 shapes. I wanted to see what would happen if you put watercolors on the gelli plate. The answer - not much. The watercolor doesn't really spread to the edges. Next I tried using a coat of gesso on the plate and then adding the watercolor. This worked but meant a lot of cleaning brushes between layers as to not contaminate my watercolors. It was a nice experiment but I'm not sure I'm trying it again.

I used a round plate to make the middle of the flower and the rectangular one for the area of the tile. The rest is doodling. My doodling palette is very limited. This was not something I was really given to when I was younger and I never can figure out what to do other than scallops. I have a Zentangle book somewhere for ideas. The white markers worked well in the black paint and the rest is colored with the Zig Big Brush markers that I love and need to find more uses for.

The theme here is stolen moments between caregiving duties which have increased quite a bit lately. Having little things like a good book or my knitting helps tremendously. Watching something on Netflix takes my mind of things for a bit. And I'm grateful for friends particularly one who has been there as the only child of an elderly parent.

About Me

Capturing our memories in scrapbooks and creating cards are passions I love to share through my blog and YouTube videos. Thanks for visiting. If you find inspiration here, I'd be honored if you subscribed or followed my blog.